Brcgs Culture Excellence Site Manual Issue 10-003

BRCGS CULTURE EXCELLENCE
FOOD SAFETY CULTURE MODULE

IMPLEMENTATION
MANUAL
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the BRCGS Food Safety Culture Excellence module!
By using the Food Safety Culture Excellence (FSCE) assessment, you are taking part in an innovative
and exciting program to measure what has previously been unmeasurable. More importantly, you will
be gaining new insights into areas for improvement, helping you to create, maintain and demonstrate
a food safety Culture of Excellence.
This document provides step-by-step advice and guidance on how to implement the module in your
site(s), and get the best possible results from it.
CONTENTS
SECTION SUBJECT PAGE

BEFORE THE SURVEY
1 Planning 1
2 Communications 1
3 Target response numbers 2
4 Using the survey link - IMPORTANT 3
DURING THE SURVEY
5 Selecting a language 4
6 Question branching 4
7 Progress updates 5
8 Closing the survey 5
AFTER THE SURVEY
9 Receiving your report 6
10 Interpreting your report 6
- Appendix A: ‘Select another language’ poster 8
- Appendix B: Frequently asked questions 10
If you have any questions please contact: enquiries@culturexcellence.com
All content is © copyright 2016 - 2019 TSI Quality Services.

CE 002 SITE IMPLEMENTATION MANUAL ISSUE 10 1st May 2019
1. BEFORE THE SURVEY: PLANNING
The typical duration is two - four weeks. But, it is your choice as to the duration (there is no
technical deadline).
With regards to how the survey is completed:

• Senior employees typically take the survey on their own computer / device.
• Other employees (e.g. those on the factory floor) typically use shared computers / devices: the
survey is set up by an IT representative, then employees take the survey one-by-one.
Employees should be given sufficient time (15 - 20 minutes) during their working day. It is not
recommended that employees be requested to complete the survey during their normal break
times or outside their working hours because this will normally mean they rush.
In addition, anonymity should be a consideration. Ideally employees should have privacy to

complete the survey, to ensure they feel that they can answer honestly without being observed.
Note: The survey must be completed in one sitting, it cannot be saved and completed later.
2. BEFORE THE SURVEY: COMMUNICATION
It is important to communicate the assessment well to employees. To maximise the impact and
credibility of communications, consider the following:
• Source: communications should originate from senior representatives and should be
propagated via respected peers.
• Method: this varies per client, but generally includes posters, briefings and emails. To support
communications we provide the following poster (in all languages of the survey):
• Message: the intent of the assessment must be made clear, specifically:

• it is not just about a total score,
• it gives insight into relative strengths and weaknesses,
• honesty is paramount, and will dictate the value of the process,
• the assessment will enable action planning and improvement,
• answers are anonymous; no personal information is collected, and the reporting will not
allow individual responses to be viewed.
• Follow-up: this reinforces the message and drives uptake (e.g. countdowns, progress updates).

CE 002 SITE IMPLEMENTATION MANUAL ISSUE 10 1st May 2019 1
3. BEFORE THE SURVEY: TARGET RESPONSE NUMBERS
During your application for the FSCE Module, you provided the total number of employees at
your Site at the following hierarchy levels:
MANAGER / SUPERVISOR /
OPERATOR / OPERATIVE
SENIOR MANAGER TEAM LEADER
A member of staff whose A member of staff who A member of staff who

work is not typically on the typically works on the ‘shop typically has a line role and is
‘shop floor’ and who plans and floor’ and has the responsibility not responsible for managing
manages the work of others. to supervise or manage others or supervising others.
within their area or team.
The best scenario is that everyone at the Site completes the survey, which will provide the most
data to analyse. However, the larger the number of people at a site, the harder this can be. We
therefore set minimum targets based on the numbers you provided, using the percentages shown
below to achieve a representative sample:
SITE SIZE MINIMUM TARGET PERCENTAGE

(NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES) OF RESPONDENTS
Less than 30 90%

30 – 49 80%
50 – 69 70%
70 – 99 60%
100 – 139 50%
140 – 199 40%
More than 200 30%
Based on these percentages, we calculate the minimum targets and communicate them to you in
the survey welcome email.
For example: If a site has 100 employees, the minimum target is 50%. Therefore, if the 100
employees include 10 managers, 20 supervisors and 70 operators, they would need a minimum of
5 managers, 10 supervisors and 35 operators to complete the survey (50% of each hierarchy level).
The minimum targets from the above example would be communicated in the survey registration
email in the following format:
• Manager / Senior Manager: 5 (50% of Site total)

• Supervisor / Team Leader: 10 (50% of Site total)
• Operator:
Generally, employees are likely35
to(50%
take of
theSite total) process more seriously if they perceive
survey
that it will lead to meaningful change. Therefore, if part of the communications comes
Please check senior
via credible your survey welcome email
representatives andfor/the
or target numbers
respected for your
peers, it willSite.
haveYoumore
will also receive
impact.
weekly emails with updates on progress towards the targets (see page 5).

4. BEFORE THE SURVEY: USING THE LINK
Access to the survey is via a web link. We will provide a unique link for your organisation. This can
be emailed, made available on your intranet and / or bookmarked on a web browser on a shared
device. Personal devices such as phones and tablets can be used (the survey will auto-format for
these).
The technical requirements are the following:

• Internet access is required,
• Javascript is required,
• Amazon Web Services Cloudfront is required (so must not be blocked),
• Cookies must be enabled.
IMPORTANT:
The link we provide must not be changed in any way. In addition, if the survey is bookmarked in a
web browser, the bookmark must be set for the initial page of the survey (which shows the BRCGS
and Culture Excellence logo at the top and the ‘Thank you for participating in this survey.’ text, as
shown below), before any buttons are clicked or any navigation is made.
If the link is not set up / used correctly, response data can be lost. Examples of bookmarking errors
are provided below (these can be shared with your IT team to avoid similar problems):
Example 1: a manager in a majority Spanish-speaking site opened the link on a shared computer,
selected the Spanish language option, then bookmarked the link for use by employees. Selecting a
language creates a unique session ID in the web browser (a ‘session ID’ is an identifier that should
be unique to every individual respondent). By bookmarking the link AFTER selecting the language,
every employee who used the link used the same session ID, so each employee overwrote the
previous employee’s answers, so data was lost. Therefore, language selection must not take place
before the link is bookmarked.
Example 2: a client opened the link, and instead of bookmarking the survey page in a web browser,
they saved the web page as a static file to the desktop of the shared computer. This embedded the
session ID into the static file. Therefore, every employee who opened the file from the desktop
used the same session ID and overwrote previous responses. Therefore, the survey page must not
be saved as a static file.
If there are any questions regarding the setup of the link, they can be sent to
enquiries@culturexcellence.com.

5. DURING THE SURVEY: SELECTING A LANGUAGE
As of 1st May 2019 the survey has 48 language options:

• Arabic • German • Portuguese
• Armenian • Greek • Portuguese (Brazil)
• Belarusian • Hindi • Romanian
• Bengali • Hungarian • Russian
• Bosnian • Italian • Serbian
• Bulgarian • Japanese • Sinhalese
• Burmese • Khmer • Slovak
• Chinese (simplified) • Korean • Spanish
• Chinese (traditional) • Latvian • Spanish (US / LATAM localised)
• Croatian • Lithuanian • Swedish
• Czech • Macedonian • Tagalog
• Danish • Malay • Tamil
• Dutch • Marathi • Turkish
• English • Nepali • Ukrainian
• Finnish • Norwegian • Urdu
• French • Polish • Vietnamese
Each respondent can select their preferred choice of language. To access an alternative language,
the ‘Select another language’ button should be used, as shown below (we provide dedicated PDF
instructions for this in Appendix A on page 8, which can be printed and shared at your site):
6. DURING THE SURVEY: QUESTION BRANCHING
The assessment dynamically shows or hides questions based on hierarchy role. Managers have
more questions than supervisors, who in turn have more than operators.
Other questions only display if pre-requisite response(s) are made. For example, a question on
impact of training will not appear if a respondent states that they have never received training.
Therefore, not all employees will see the same questions. This is handled automatically in the
survey.

7. DURING THE SURVEY: PROGRESS UPDATES
You will receive updates via email every week on your progress. The updates will be sent from
admin@culturexcellence.com with the title: “BRCGS Culture Excellence survey status“.
An example is shown below:
8. DURING THE SURVEY: CLOSING THE SURVEY
Once the number of respondents meets the minimum targets, you will receive an email with the
title: “BRCGS Culture Excellence survey status targets met”
This email includes an option to close the survey. If you choose to close the survey, click the link
in the email (an example is shown below); you will receive a confirmation email.
If you wish to continue to gather responses over and above the minimum targets, you don’t need
to do anything: the survey will stay open.
Automatic survey closure: If you achieve 100% of ALL employees at the Site (i.e. not just the
minimum targets, but 100% of the numbers that you provided during your application for the
module), the survey will be closed automatically. You will receive an email to inform you if this
happens.
Early survey closure: If you would like to close a survey before meeting the minimum targets,
please email admin@culturexcellence.com with the request.
Note: closing a survey early means that the data will not be a representative sample of your site.

9. AFTER THE SURVEY: RECEIVING YOUR REPORT
Once your survey has been closed, the module report will be generated and uploaded for you to
access in the ‘Private audits’ section of your BRCGS Directory account.
If you have any questions about how to access the report on the BRCGS Directory, please email
submissions@brcgs.com.
10. AFTER THE SURVEY: INTERPRETING YOUR REPORT
The report contains a range of data based on the responses gathered from the survey.
The main pages of the report are described below:
Total score and grade. The score is

the average of the four Category
scores.
Four Category scores (People,

Process, Purpose and Proactivity).
These are the average of the 20
Dimension scores (five Dimensions
per Category).
Previous scores and indication of

change. These will be populated
after your second assessment.
20 Dimension scores. These are

calculated based on 60+ ‘Element’
scores which are generated by the
questions in the survey.
Continues on the next page:

10. AFTER THE SURVEY: INTERPRETING YOUR REPORT (CONTINUED)
The industry comparison shows

your score compared to all food
industry assessment results.
The Product Category comparison

shows your score compared to all
assessment results for sites with
the same primary Product Category.
Elements are the greatest level

of detail of scoring. Four Element
scores are provided.
Employees are given the

opportunity to identify their
perceived barriers to and positives
of food safety culture. The most-
selected two barriers and positives
are provided here, along with the
number of times they were chosen.
Additional pages provide details on score and grade descriptions, definitions of the 20 Dimensions,
and suggested next steps to be taken after the assessment.

10. AFTER THE SURVEY: INTERPRETING YOUR REPORT (CONTINUED)
The report also includes extensive guidance on improvement, based on best practice and experience
with clients who have undertaken the FSCE assessment, with actions for all Dimensions. These are
general guidelines, and not specific to your Site.
APPENDIX A: ‘SELECT ANOTHER LANGUAGE’ POSTER
Appendix A is provided on the next page, and is designed for printing in case you would like to use
it at the locations where the survey will be taken.

FOOD SAFETY CULTURE MODULE
Select another language Andere Sprache auswählen Pasirinkite kitą kalbą
Sélectionnez une autre langue Başka bir dil seçin Válasszon más nyelvet
Seleziona un’altra lingua Chọn một ngôn ngữ khác Välj ett annat språk
Selecione outro idioma Επιλέξτε άλλη γλώσσα Valitse muu kieli
Seleccione otro idioma Izvēlēties citu valodu Vælg et andet sprog
Selectați o altă limbă Izaberite neki drugi jezik Velg et annet språk
Pilih bahasa lain Kies een andere taal Wybierz inny język
Выбрать другой язык Pumili ng ibang lengguwahe Zvoliť iný jazyk
Вибрати іншу мову 选择其他语言 Zvolte jiný jazyk
Одберете друг јазик 別の言語を選択する ‫اختر لغة أخرى‬

Изберете друг език 選擇其他語言
Выбраць іншую мову 다른 언어 선택 Ընտրեք մեկ այլ լեզու:
अर्को भाषा चयन गर्नुहोस् इतर भाषा निवडा আরেকটি ভাষা নির্বাচন করুন
कोई दूसरा भाषा चुने වෙනත් භාෂාවක් ත�ෝ�රා ගන්න ជ្រើសរ�ើសភាសាមួយទ�ៀត។
மற்றொரு ம�ொழியை தேர்ந்தெடுக்கவும்
Language selection poster (issue 5). © Copyright 2015 - 2019 TSI Quality Services.
APPENDIX B: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (1 OF 2)
Do we need to ask the employees to answer in a particular way?

Honesty is the most important input to the assessment. The value of Culture Excellence is seeing
your real strengths and weaknesses. This will highlight opportunities to improve as well as areas to
celebrate. If employees feel that they need to try to create a high score, this will reduce the benefit
for you. Our clients have discovered things that have prevented problems in their businesses, but
only because the survey responses were authentic.
Also, our clients see improvements over time when they respond to their results. But if the scores
are artificially high in year 1, meaningful change is very difficult to plan and achieve.
So, we recommend encouraging your employees to answer openly and honestly (their responses
will be anonymous) and taking the time to give thoughtful responses.
Should we add more responses than the minimum targets?

Yes! The more data you collect, the more representative the results will be of your site. But, try to
avoid disproportionately increasing just one hierarchy level. For example, if you achieve 150% of
manager response targets, then we recommend also achieving 150% of the other levels too (e.g.
supervisors / team leaders and operators).
Should we select specific groups from the site to complete the survey?
For the data to be representative, the survey should be taken by as broad a range of people as
possible involved in production. Obviously, if there are people at the site who have no impact at
all on food safety (for example, office staff located away from the production area who have no
responsibility for food production activities), they do not have to be included.
Can people save their progress and come back later?

This is not possible. In order to save a survey response, we would need an employee to enter a
unique ID of some sort (e.g. name or email). Because anonymity is a top priority, we do not enable
this.
Therefore, employees should be given sufficient time to complete the survey in one sitting.
Can we use paper copies of the survey?

In rare cases, operators at a site cannot get access to any shared device (e.g. company computers /
tablets) or use their own (e.g. mobile phone) to take the survey, and in this situation we provide an
operator-level survey as a PDF to be printed and used.
However, wherever possible it is better to use the online survey for the following reasons:
• Some survey questions are dynamically shown / hidden based on the answer to previous
questions. With paper copies this cannot be done.
• We monitor the quality of online responses and report any issues to you. We cannot do this as
quickly or effectively with paper copies.
• Paper copies need to be re-keyed by someone who is not directly involved at the site. This
needs to be planned carefully so that it does not jeopardise the anonymity of the survey.
In most companies, managers and supervisors use their own devices, and operators are given
access to a shared computer or tablet at the site. Employees do not use any unique ID or login to
access the assessment (this preserves anonymity), so it is simple to set up shared access.

APPENDIX B: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (2 OF 2)
How can we avoid responses being over-written?

This is rare but can happen. This is explained on page 3 of this document. To avoid it, the link we
provide must be used / shared / bookmarked exactly as we provide it in your welcome email.
Many clients bookmark the link on a shared device for employees to use. The link should be
bookmarked exactly as we provide it. It must not be bookmarked after any buttons are clicked
on the survey welcome screen (e.g. ‘Select another language’ or ‘Next’). This is because clicking
anything in the survey creates a ‘session ID’. A session ID is a technical identifier for a response. If
a link is bookmarked after a session ID has been created, everyone who uses the same bookmark
will use the same session ID, and each response will over-write the previous response so the data
will be lost.
We monitor responses, and in the unlikely event that we see this happening we will inform you.
What should we do if someone has to stop part way through?

Occasionally someone may need to stop part way through the survey for an unavoidable reason
(such as a loss of internet connection). If they have only completed a small number of responses
(e.g. less than half), we recommend that they take the survey again from the beginning (we have a
process to delete certain partial responses to avoid duplication). If they have completed most of
the survey (e.g. more than half), we recommend that they don’t take it again.
If you have any other questions please contact us at:

enquiries@culturexcellence.com

brcgs.com/brcgs/food-safety/additional-modules/food-safety-culture-module/
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BRCGS CULTURE EXCELLENCE

FOOD SAFETY CULTURE MODULE

Welcome to the BRCGS Food Safety Culture Excellence module!

SECTION SUBJECT PAGE

If you have any questions please contact: enquiries@culturexcellence.com

All content is © copyright 2016 - 2019 TSI Quality Services.